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Stefan_W's 2013 Pods A-Ripenin'! Glog

I am going to start the new glog for my upcoming growing season on a bit of a personal note. One year ago tomorrow (January 3rd) is the one year anniversary of the day that my daughter was diagnosed with a tumour that is lodged in the middle of her brain. The past year has involved treatments and hospital stays, and there were at least three different points when we were pretty sure she was not going to make it. But she is a fighter, and nothing could keep her down for long.

Sofia has personally planted every pepper and tomato seed that I have started in the past three growing seasons. She beat the odds last year to help me, and once again she is defying what medicine has to say to help me out this year.

We started a jalapeno plant about a week ago just for the sake of watching it grow, because we both love it so much. One of the jalapenos grew to the point that it had its firt couple of leaves, so we transplanted him into a bigger pot. While we were at it I decided to put in some aji lemondrops, partly because they take a long time to fruit up and I wanted to give them a huge head start.

This is the jalapeno plant. I pulled the second one out because we did not need it, and discovered that the roots had grown all of the way down to the bottom of the cell.
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My daughter personally doing the transplant.
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Her aim is better than mine, and so it turned out perfectly.
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Next up was taking out the lemondrop seeds from peppermania.
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I need a few extras of this type, so I asked Sofia to plant two seeds in each of the four cells. Two plants will be for us, and whatever else grows will be given away to good friends.
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Two of the three tiers in my lighting stand are currently being used as toy shelves, which is cool for now. The lights are adjustable, and moved down to get close to the seedling.
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The heating pad works extremely well, and once the cells are covered the top clouds up in no time.
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A happy early jalapeno seedling in his new home. I thought I heard "feeeeeed meeeeee" coming from that direction, but I'm not sure.
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That's it for today, folks! Welcome to my new glog :welcome:
 
Stefan, i had one firecrack started, but it went missing. Not sure if the wife killed it off and disposed of it while i was trout fishing (getting raccoon biten :) ) or if i mislabeled and gave it away. So that makes two of us without them. Guess I'm not ordering more knowing yours didn't grow true. I might still have some seeds from last years grow, thinking i do.
 
GA Growhead said:
Stefan, i had one firecrack started, but it went missing. Not sure if the wife killed it off and disposed of it while i was trout fishing (getting raccoon biten :) ) or if i mislabeled and gave it away. So that makes two of us without them. Guess I'm not ordering more knowing yours didn't grow true. I might still have some seeds from last years grow, thinking i do.
 
I saved seeds from mine, but I know I gave a bunch away and I'm not sure if there are any left. Between us I'm sure someone has some. I'd be glad to send over some if I have any and you don't.
 
This is part two of the dish I made for beer tasting night. Last night I made the salsa, and impregnated the cream cheese with cherrywood smoked trinidad scorpion and naga morich powder. After I posted the pics my stepdaughter tried to sneak some as a late night snack, and she was practically crying from the heat. It just goes to show that it pays to ask before taking stuff :)
 
Beer night starts in 30 mins, so it is time to put this all together. I took out the cream cheese 2 hours ago to give it a chance to soften, and I spread it onto a plate. You can see all of the powder in it.
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Next come the salsa I made last night. My wife said to me "aren't you going to put on mild salsa?" I said no, I made the hot salsa just for this. She said "those poor guys." Yes, exactly.
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I layered monteray jack and cheddar cheese. You may ask at this point whether I melted it, and trust me when I say this dish is actually better this way. Melting the cheese and everything together is not needed and does not help the flavour.
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The last step was to sprinkle some fresh cut green onions, which are very strong this year. 
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I prefer to serve these with a local brand of organic no crap added taco chips, but it will work with regular store bought stuff just as well. People just take a chip and scoop through all of the layers. I did a quick sample and nearly died from the heat, so I know it is good stuff.
 
Thanks for having a look!
 
This is a must try!
 
Thanks for sharing and I hope you enjoy beer night.
 
How could someone NOT enjoy beer night is the question :drunk:
 
Devv said:
This is a must try!
 
Thanks for sharing and I hope you enjoy beer night.
 
How could someone NOT enjoy beer night is the question :drunk:
 
I definitely enjoyed beer night. Everyone enjoyed the dish, and there were a couple of chilli heads there who could not get enough of it. This is what I ended up coming back home with, which I take as a compliment to the taste:
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That dip looks awesome. The cheese on the bottom of the plate acts as a brake when on the chip....that helps the rest of the goods from sliding off.
 
My tortilla chip would swip right across that dip from corner to corner.....I can taste that from here......South of the your border....
 
Nice work.............now I have to have a cold one !
 
PIC 1 said:
That dip looks awesome. The cheese on the bottom of the plate acts as a brake when on the chip....that helps the rest of the goods from sliding off.
 
My tortilla chip would swip right across that dip from corner to corner.....I can taste that from here......South of the your border....
 
Nice work.............now I have to have a cold one !
 
Enjoy the cold one!
 
Yeah, it was a huge hit and it a perfect dip for when you have 10 people sharing a plate. It is great for parties, and the heat level is adjustable depending on the crowd.
 
Thanks for stopping by!
I am home sick from work today, so I decided to snap a few early afternoon pics just for a change in pace.
 
The first yellow 7 gigantic is definitely going to red. I plan to pick a couple of these on the weekend to try them out.
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My other yellow 7 gigantic is definitely yellow, but is not particularly gigantic. It worked out well that one ended up being red, because it gives me different things to try out. I lost a few plants to early frost, so I appreciate how it all worked out.
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The Butch-T is taking forever to ripen! The other pods have not even started, and I hope they get going soon. I only have another 4 weeks or so of growing before overnight lows become a big problem.
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This yellow brain was a tiny stick at the start of June, and now it is my largest plant. It helps being in a box that bottoms out into the general garden area. If this is the type of result you get when you plant in the garden rather than in pots I may have to re-think how I do things. Anyway, tiny pods starting to form right now with no real chance of ripening. I am keeping this plant going because I may decide to overwinter it.
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The lemondrops are getting real close now. It still cracks up how they ripen from tip to shoulder rather than the other way around.
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Ghost peppers getting closer. I am expecting a big harvest, providing the rest start to ripen in the next few days. Aside from that I will have to pray for a late fall this year.
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The goat peppers are starting to turn. It is ripening pretty fast, so I don't expect any issues with getting a bunch of pods from this plant.
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One of my Dixie Golden Giants. It is the best new tomato variety I am growing this season, and is perfect for BLTs. Even though things have been slower than usual I am still picked a couple a day.
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Thanks for having a look!
 
Glad everything was a hit, didn't expect anything else from you! Now time to steal some awesome pictures or if you are a FB guy please feel free to share. Amazing use of a smoked powder. 
 
Beerswimmer said:
Nice! I'm north of you and just started getting some color a few days ago.  You'll be doing just fine with the good weather on it's way!
 
It is shaping up to be a great weekend. The trick will be to get a bunch of pods ripe before the overnight lows drop too far.
 
Thanks for stopping by!
JoynersHotPeppers said:
Glad everything was a hit, didn't expect anything else from you! Now time to steal some awesome pictures or if you are a FB guy please feel free to share. Amazing use of a smoked powder. 
 
Feel free to steal whichever ones you like. The powder brought it all to a new level, and it went over great with the folks who like kick with their snacks.
 
Devv said:
Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, or was it the beer? :shh:
 
Glad you're going to get that long awaited harvest!
 
Haha! No, it was nothing like that. I came down with a cold yesterday morning, and it was bad enough today that I decided all I would accomplish at work would be getting everyone else there sick. 
Woohoo, getting close to 10,000 page views! I don't tend to follow that stuff all that closely, but I started to notice once I hit 9900.
 
Stefan_W said:
 
Haha! No, it was nothing like that. I came down with a cold yesterday morning, and it was bad enough today that I decided all I would accomplish at work would be getting everyone else there sick. 

Woohoo, getting close to 10,000 page views! I don't tend to follow that stuff all that closely, but I started to notice once I hit 9900.
Glad to hear some of us stay home so the rest won't catch the bug. I do the same, and despise those who think they're too important to stay home..after all we get sick days that affect our pay. So why spread the joy?
 
Congrats on your numbers!
 
Hi Stefan,
   Nice pod porn and foodie pics :woohoo: ! It may not be particularly long, but you've got a season! If your Butch T. pods come out like mine, make sure to have something on hand to put out the fire this variety will put the hurt on ya!
 
stickman said:
Hi Stefan,
   Nice pod porn and foodie pics :woohoo: ! It may not be particularly long, but you've got a season! If your Butch T. pods come out like mine, make sure to have something on hand to put out the fire this variety will put the hurt on ya!
 
Yup, the harvesting is getting going now. Speaking of Butch-Ts...
 
 
Today I had a couple of firsts. 
 
I pulled my first Butch-T, which was the huge one I've been watching all season. It came in at 2.25 inches long. I'm no expert on Butch Ts, but that seems pretty impressive to me.
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I also pulled my first aji lemondrop. 
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I'll be posting some pod reviews as I try pieces out raw, and I'll probably make a salsa or a sauce this weekend too. I have pulled three not yellow 7s already, and a couple more are getting close.
 
Woohoo! Let the growing begin!
 
Devv said:
Glad to see this buddy!
 
Thanks :) It was a stressful wait, but I am seeing pods hitting overdrive now and the ripening is really taking off on most of my plants. A couple still have me worried because they are so long season, but maybe we'll end up with a late fall after our late start to summer.
 
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